I recently finished Pokemon Sword on the Nintendo Switch. It’s an uneven game but fun. Some of the areas have poor textures, and many of the Pokemon animation and effects disappoint. But the game doesn’t warrant the outcry on the Internet. At this point, I shouldn’t be surprised. The Internet outraged?
On Metacritic, Pokemon Sword and Shield has a user score of 3.7. This review of 0 summarizes most of the problems people have with the game:
–NintendoGuy64, Metacritic.
Most people are upset about the lack of a national Pokedex, which means you can’t import most of the Pokemon from the other games. If you play the games like I do–starting fresh each time–it’s not a big deal. Eventually GameFreak would have to stop supporting the full Pokedex. The number of Pokemon they would have to create models and animations is staggering. In fact, I suspect the uneven animation and model quality in Pokemon Sword and Shield shows how overwhelmed the team might be. The number of moves that need animations would consume hundreds of work hours. Then combine this with animating unique action sequences with each move. I’ll admit that lack of animation with many of the attacks annoyed me during my playthrough. But it’s understandable when you consider the sheer scale of the universe. GameFreak sits in a challenging position. Remaking each game from scratch becomes too time consuming, yet fans clamor for a change in formula.
With more time, I’m certain the team would’ve done more. Despite disappointments, I still enjoyed the game.
Besides, the game doesn’t target gamers like me, those who’ve played Pokemon on and off since Red and Blue. It aims at kids. The simplicity and low difficulty level, along with the removal of the national Pokedex, offers a place for kids who want to start with Pokemon. With any long-running franchise, it can be difficult for beginners to get in. While Pokemon restarts with each game, it assumes some knowledge of all the creature types and other features. Pokemon Sword and Shield, on the other hand, eases new players into the system. As soon as you catch a Pokemon, you can see its strengths and weaknesses on your team’s move list whenever you encounter it. This trains new players to recognize the rock-paper-scissors combinations and reduce the guessing of the older games. I rather like the feature. The game also eases new players by simplifying the system. It drops all the higher level evolutions and features in favor of a Dynamax gimmick that you can safely ignore. As a kid, I would’ve been excited about Dynamaxing.
For veteran RPG players like me, the game is easy. Some fights can annoy; they would challenge a kid. The Dynamax gimmick amuses me, however. In several fights, the gym leader would bluster and Dynamax. My regular-sized Pokemon would proceed to one-shot the Dynamax. If you don’t like the system, you can just ignore it. Again, this game isn’t meant for RPG players like me, but I still had fun.
That’s something many forget about gaming. It’s supposed to be fun. Pokemon isn’t about dominating. It’s about raising your critters and seeing new ones. But it seems everyone wants to dominate. Whenever I speak to younger gamers, they focus on deathmatch shooters and similar dominating games. Many play Mario and similar games, but Call of Duty and other competitive games command most of their time. Yet, they don’t seem to really have fun playing them. Often, they tell me of frustration when they can’t break through to a higher rank. They speak of grind. And when I ask them if they are having fun with the game, they shrug. “Sometimes” and “When I win.” are the answers. I understand the need to win, but I play games for fun first. That’s why I always start a Pokemon game from zero. It’s more fun for me.
I can understand people’s frustration with the national Pokedex and unevenness of the game. But outrage is unnecessary. The game aims at easing new, younger players into the franchise. Parents can use it to share their own love for the Poke universe. In these regards, Sword and Shield succeed.
Yeah. . .
As for American animation its certainly a good time to give the newer shows a shot. In fact, according to a person I watch on youtube (at least the last I heard him discuss this), we are in a golden age of animation, and I can certainly see that from some of the shows I was watch. Not of course not every show is good, but there seems to be a change in how some cartoons have been approaching story telling and animation compared to the ones I grew with during the 90s and early 00s. For example this year I have been watching the first two seasons of the rebooted DuckTales series and it’s overall been amazing so far. Part of this change from what I have learn is due to the influence anime has had towards the creators of today, and from watching some of these shows I can certainly see that. American animation is not on part with anime I think, but it’s closer to it then it was before.
I understand! For me Generation 1 is my least favorite, but only because other generations since the first have seen changes for the better in the mainline Pokémon games instead of the first generation being outright terrible. It’s a testament to how far Pokémon has come since then.
Concerning Nintendo that is probably the reason. Nintendo can get away with it delaying their games despite how that action can have an effect on stock exchange. Plus it seems that Nintendo of America’s purpose is more to localize games then it is to create them, so I do not see Nintendo’s American branch getting in trouble either. I have not heard of this law. I have the feeling this is a law that had relevancy long ago, but not in this time period.
Concerning male characters in games, I would say the likely reason the male avatars in recent Pokémon games do not have this problem is thanks to them being too young to possess a muscular physique so they do not move like muscular brutes. Although Calme, who is the male avatar in Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, is by far the oldest looking male avatar in the mainline series, which given his appearance it’s plausible he could be around 16, and that is the age typically when the human body is the most developed biologically speaking. If that is the case that could be chalk up to him having a different physique (as well as him not being a body builder in general). Anyway, I have been hearing that American animation (I think particularly film) has been having a similar problem with not having different characters being animated in unique ways. It seems that this is a problem that has been extended to animating video games as well.
On another note I see that you like butts, huh? I am more into boobs, but I understand the logic you were coming from.
P.S.S Sorry for the late response.
Henry Ford was sued by his shareholders when he decided to pay his workers well enough that they too could afford to buy a Model-T in a few months. The investor law (I can’t remember the formal name of it) has stymied long-term thinking on business.
You are right about American animation now that I consider it. Back in my day (the 1980s-90s) characters like He-Man moved stiffly, partially because of his massive physique. I’ve seen many modern animations suffering from the problem of similarity too. Namely, because studios are using bipedal skeletons with standard walking and other inverse kinematics for 3D animations. I used to work with 3d Studio Max’s IK and Bipedal systems.
Haha. Well, if I’m honest, I like small busts. A-cups are quite nice! But you don’t see the front of your avatar in games like Final Fantasy 14 as often.
I see! I have heard of Henry Ford doing something like that, but as a means relating to economics or something like that (I can’t remember the details). If this law is really a problem then it should go. From what I can see being beholden to investors can have in affect on the quality of their products.
Concerning American animation, I am guessing they are relying on this bipedal skeleton and inverse kinematics for reasons concerning efficient production so the studios can bring out their animated films sooner. It would be nice to see studios actually try something different with their animation. The good thing though is that it would seem that there is more creativity on the television side of American animation. There is even one show titled “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” that uses the sukuga method during it’s action scenes from the clips I have watch.
Concerning bust size, I agree that A cups are nice. For me so as long as the breasts are well shaped (slight tear drop shape) and the right size (not so big nor flat) I am perfectly fine. I seem to have a prefer range of A – F/G cups. Also yes we do not get to see the front size of female characters often. However when possible I can take pictures of them at least to look at them later.
I don’t expect a 100-year-old law to change as long as shareholders benefit.
It sounds like I should pay attention to new American animation more. I haven’t paid it attention for the past 10 years or so.
While I knew you are familiar with Pokémon from viewing some of your past post related to the franchise, I was not expecting you to play the latest game in the mainline series, and you chose the Sword version which is the same version I am currently playing as. I also did not know that you have played the other mainline Pokémon games as well.
Anyway concerning the national dex, or the lack there of in this case, I am not bother by this as well given that I start each new Pokémon game fresh instead of importing pokémon from past games to take with me on my new adventures for reasons that I like to try out the new pokémon and I want for my journey to be challenging enough instead of just breezing along though the story. I find no fun in that after all. Plus, I have never develop a sentimental attachment to any of the pokémon I have use in my team in past games to warrant having a desire to bring them along in to the latest games, but I would say sentimentality is the main emotion that is driving some people to be upset for the fact that Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield to not have a national dex given from what I have learn from talking to a person who was disappointed of this news on a Pokémon related server I am a member of on discord. That and I would also say poor communication on Game freaks part. I think either the same person or another person brought up to me that if it was mention that the national dex was not going to be in the latest games during the time Pokémon Home was revealed instead of announcing that sometime afterward the backlash would not have been nearly as severe as it was, which I can plausibly see. Then there was the reasoning Game Freak gave for why they had to cut back on Pokémon, which I cannot remember entirely in detail but I do know it related to using new animation or something like that, but only for it to turn out not to be the case when it was discover thanks to data miners that the developers were using the same models from past games. This has led to people claiming that Game Freak had lie to them.
However as I learn more about what goes into the development of games thanks to listening to the thoughts of two gamers on twitch (one of which I follow), I am thinking that it’s not so much that Game Freak lied to everyone, but that they did do a good job in communicating the reasoning behind cutting back on some of the pokémon. Like you mention there is a lot of work that goes into creating a model for each pokémon as well as animating those models. I would add that the developers have to take into account for the stats of pokémon and how those stats are affected base around a pokémon’s nature, characteristics, abilities, etc. Add all of that together and one can imagine how daunting of a task it would be for developers do that for nearly a thousand pokémon. This is something I think Game Freak should have been straight with everyone instead of giving this business talk (I believe this is refer to as public relations or PR for short?) as a means to try to appease as many people as possible. I know I could be wrong given that I do not specialize in business practice, but sometimes I think in certain circumstances it would be better for companies if they were more frank with their statements to their customers as I have seen a couple of times now how communicating this way has made things worse for companies.
Another thing I would add that it would also likely be daunting for some of the people who want to 100% the game, like myself. I was feeling slightly overwhelm, but in a good way, of the amount of pokémon I was catching in Pokémon Sword, but I feel trying to catch or get nearly a thousand of them would be a bit too much of a task. I can see that in the distant future (assuming if Pokémon is still around and introducing new creatures) trying to “catch em all” would no longer be something reasonable for players to do to 100% the games, nor would it be practical for the developers to make all those pokémon available in future games, and because of this I would say I am quite glad that going forward Game Freak would not be including a national dex in their mainline Pokémon games.
Concerning about what gaming is suppose to be about your statement is similar to the one the person I follow on Twitch said during a small discussion of Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, and I agree. I feel that with some gamers it’s all about innovation and graphics (I am not seeing the desire for dominating personally, but that is likely due to that I do not pay much attention to the competitive gaming scene), and while innovation is good and necessary for the gaming industry to grow as well as excellent graphics can make for good eye candy that can potentially help one get really immerse in the setting of the game, it becomes a problem when video games, while being very creative and featuring gorgeous graphics that lean towards realism, are not fun to play.
From what I have experience with Pokémon Sword so far (I have not beaten the game, but I have so far earned seven gym badges as of this comment) while I do see that the graphics are not quite as good compare to most other Nintendo games on the Nintendo Switch and that there could be more Game Freak could have done to make the game really stand out, I am so far finding myself enjoying this game enough to feel overall satisfied with what I have bought. Most of the gym battles have been easy but satisfying enough, but I did lose the first time against the third gym leader due to not having a balance enough team to counter his type, and the second time around I felt his final Pokémon put up quite a fight despite having a water pokémon to counter it. The thing with the mainline Pokémon games (at least as one gets further in the games) how difficult the games are is partly dependent on how the players go about building and raising their teams and battling. Plus with having the experience share on this time without an option to turn it off it can be easy to over-level one’s team if they are not careful, which happen in my case. I had to either cut back on catching Pokémon in the wild areas, or if I do decide I still want to catch more pokémon in those areas I had to switch my team out with other pokémon I was not planning to use in my team, but wanted to evolve, so to keep my team from over leveling. However, a good thing about the experience share being constantly on is that players do not need to grind, or if they do not as much. There was only once instance I did needed to grind so far, and that was training one of my water pokémon for a rematch against the third gym leader. That and to have my team around the same levels. Now I have heard that the final gym leader was difficult, but that is something I would see for myself. I take it the final gym leader was not that difficult to you since it seems like you had an easy time with your play through.
Concerning dynamaxing and gigantamaxing, I think I recall feeling neutral about the feature at first for the most part as I thought it was something but it did not wow me, but from experiencing the phenomenon in my playthrough they were exciting moments, and this is despite being an adult. I get roused when I face the final pokémon in a gym match as I initiate dynamaxing and see my pokémon grow into giants and proceed to give out a war cry that echoes throughout the stadium. Seeing the movies that the pokémon unleash in this form is also fantastic. It helps that this is a phenomena that only happens in certain spots so it doesn’t get old fast, and something I am glad Game Freak did because I just know a lot of players would be over-relying on that feature in the main story if given that chance.
Lastly, I do agree that this is a game primarily aim for children and that the outrage over the changes, and lack thereof, for these latest games in the Pokémon franchise to be wrong, but I wonder if saying that to some of the older pokémon fans who demand for a change in formula (something which I do not think the mainline Pokémon games actually really need to make them even better games) would make them understand. I feel that is something they would not take into consideration given how stiff neck they seem to be. Also, I do agree that these are excellent games for children, but I would take it step further and say that Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are the best games for anyone who wants to give video game side of pokémon a try. The quality of life of these games is the best the series has been by far, and the game play having always been beginner friendly enough as you mention helps.
P.S: What pokémon made your team, and did you go with a male or female avatar? I went with the female one as I typically like seeing stories starring female protagonist and I like her character design. I gave the female avatar her cannon name Yūri. As for my team it’s the following: cinderace, eldegoss, minccino, gastrodon, toxtricity, and alcremie.
I’m an “old school” Pokemon player. I liked to play Red and Blue because of the MissingNo item duplication glitch. Endless Rare Candy!
Game Freak does need to communicate better with fans about the difficulties of maintaining such a large roster. Players might offer more slack if Game Freak would explain themselves. But then, most players aren’t going to post their experiences online. The Internet tends toward complaints more than anything else. Many companies can’t be upfront because they fear how shareholders will react, leading to vague business talk.
I stopped being a completionist a long time ago. I don’t have much time to play–darn adulthood!–so I prefer to spend it casually playing instead of being more systematic. Catching every Pokemon and grinding them to max level would be simply insane.
I agree with you on how gaming focuses too much on graphics. I prefer games that are stylized and fun, which is why I stick to Nintendo for the bulk of my gaming. Of course, I’m also a PC gamer on the side.
I built my team from the start of the game with the end in mind. After all, you know from the start that you will face off against Charizard (fire/dragon) eventually. My team consisted of: Spritzi, Leafeon, Nine Tails, Boltund, Theivul,and Interleon. I also went with the female avatar–she had a better design–and named her Yuki. My Theivul and Nine Tails were overpowered at the end, able to shrug off just about everything because of the friendship mechanic.
So I take it your favorite generation in Pokémon is Generation 1. Also, I exploited that glitch as well back in the day. It was an easy way to raise my team’s level so to have them compete in Pokémon Stadium, although I do not think I ever use my team for all of the tournaments.
Concerning Game Freak I was thinking perhaps the developers could do a show case in which they show how they go about designing, animating, and determine an individual stats of a pokémon species for the games. However I get the feeling that even if they did there are still going to be those individuals who refuse to understand part of the process that goes into making the mainline Pokémon games. Although they might just be a minority, and everyone else might get enjoyment of seeing what goes into making a mainline Pokémon game. As to why Game Freak and other business are typically vague when sharing information with their customers, I can see the reason having to do with shareholders. I imagine a lot of companies rely on them so they have to be careful about what they say and perhaps act. I think Nintendo is the only company I know that does not seem to be always beholden to shareholders. When it was announce that the upcoming Animal Crossing game was going to be delay to next year for example, the stocks for Nintendo have drop or something like that, but that does not seem to bother Nintendo. Perhaps it’s due to how big Nintendo is at present or part of it.
Concerning graphics, I think Nintendo in a general since has a better understanding of what makes good games compared to Sony and Microsoft, and it shows with what Nintendo seems to focus on compared to Sony and Microsoft during their big presentations (thinking of E3). I get this sense that with Sony and Microsoft (especially Microsoft) there’s an emphasis on graphics (particularly graphics that fall towards realism) where as with Nintendo it’s innovation to make gaming more fun (especially for groups).
Concerning your team, you sure were thinking long term. Good on you for that. I was more concern with the fact I was going to prevent Hop from achieving his goal when it comes time to facing him in the Pokémon league.
Concerning the designs of the avatars it would seem that the females are always better design then the males, especially in the case of Pokémon Sword/Shield as well as Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum (though I think Hikari might be the least appealing female avatar by far) in which both males look rather plain. Although when I think about it this is perhaps due to that I just find female characters attractively appealing in general.
I haven’t played all the generations, so I can’t be certain. The 1st Gen does have nostalgia for me though.
I’d watch that video. That’s a good idea. Game Freak, if you are reading, get filming!
I’ve wondered how Nintendo gets away with all those delays. It might be because the development arms are based in Japan. According to US law, shareholders can sue companies if they do anything to reduce profitability. It’s a foolish law that needs removed from the books. Somehow Nintendo has dodged it.
Most games I’ve played have better female animations and models. Granted, if I’m going to stare at a bottom for dozens if not thousands of hours (back when I played Final Fantasy 14), I prefer a female bottom ;). In all seriousness though, I’d like to see male animations have the same fluidity as female. Most video game males run like they are all muscled brutes. At least the male in Pokemon didn’t have that problem, even if he did feel a bit stiff.